New weapon, ship, race, and random encounter ideas (feel free to add)

Ghrulls: tough, tall and muscular beings who look like something straight out of a fantasy book, these sturdy and intimidating beings are actually quite peaceful. They are good mechanics and engineers, and preffer negotiation over violence. Their name comes from the grunting sounds they often make when alarmed.

these beings have an almost orc-like or demon-like appearance, with a tough, sturdy build, and brownish or grayish-green skin. they usually are seen hopping around the galaxy, purchasing, experimenting with, and selling technologies they find.

Stats:

-25% damage done in combat

-20% movement speed

+30 health

+50% more damage done to enemy systems when boarding

+20% repair speed

Worm

Hive-minded parasitic worms, similar to the slug, though they manually hijack the brain of their foes, rather than telepathically. Also like the slug, they can telepathically communicate, though only with their own kind. They are rare, hated, disgusting, and can be found on desert-like planets and moons. Their name comes from their appearance and tactics

stats

-60 health

-20% repair speed

+60% base movement speed

+ When fighting an enemy who is stunned, or below 50% health, they will hijack their minds, until the host is killed, or they are kicked out (10-20 seconds, varying with difficulty and balance issues. This time can be decreased, however, with damage to the host)

-After being kicked out of their host, they will be stunned for a couple of seconds

Good for boarding crews, or those who have crews largely comprised of zoltan and/or engi

Teleportation Jammer

Enemy crew teleporters and bomb weapons take twice as long to charge up.

Good for ships that are not oriented to crew-on-crew combat.

Can also prevent some random encounters, and/or allow for specail "blue" options in certain situations.

Adv. Targeting

Makes your weapons 30-40% more accurate, but increases their charge time by 0.5-2 seconds, depending on the weapon's default charge time. Does not apply to beam weapons

Weapons

EMP Bomb

Working similarly to a hacking or ion device, it disables a system in a room, and also opens all doors and stuns all drones in said room, and stuns systems for longer than the ion weapons, and even has a small chance of doing hull damage. Unfortunately, this comes at the cost of recharge time (the this weapon recharges 40-120% slower than the ion bomb), and in addition to consuming a missle, it also consumes a drone part. AE only

Railgun

This primitave projectile weapon is a classic from the mid-to-late 21st and early 22nd centuries. It does little to no hull damage. However, it does heavy damage to drones and crew, can damage systems, can pierce shields (up to lvl 2), and has a relatively fast recharge time (6-8 seconds). Unfortunately, it uses 1-4 scrap per shot, so make sure to use it sparingly. AE only

Railgun Mkll

This (successful) Engi product to improve on the railgun makes it much more desctructive, enabling it to deal much more damage to systems and drones, and even allows it to cause hull damage, as well as ignore all but the strongest of shields (lvl 4 and zoltan). However this larger, heavier, and less aerodynamic projectile leads to less accuracy (around a 10-20% greater chance to miss), a longer charge time (around 50% slower), and a higher scrap consumption (3-5 scrap per shot). AE only
(NOTE: All railgun/coilgun weapons will have a 100% chance to cause hull breach upon successful hit)

Encounters (sorry for the messy structure)

Desert Planet

You encounter a small, sandy planet. There appears to be a large abandoned ship on its surface

1: Land on the planet and attempt to loot the wreck

2: Leave, there might be a worm hive

3: (Adv. Scanners, Lvl 2 scanners or Slug crew) Scan the area

4: (Scrap collector arm) Scavenge the wreck from a distance [Small amount of scrap, no risk. If you have a ship repair arm augment, small chance of finding weapon. If you have drone arm augment, small chance of getting drone schematic]

5: (Worm Crew): Attempt to make contact with any potential hive

(If option 1 is chosen)

1I: You land on the wreck, only to discover a worm hive! They don't appear to be awake yet, and you might be able to sneak away

-OR-

1II: The wreck is mostly empty. You find a few worm larvae around the place, but they quickly scatter. You loot the wreck and pull away [moderate amount of scrap, fuel, drone parts, and missiles. Small chance of acquiring weapon or drone schematic]

5I: Your worm crew member recieves a response from a high-ranking hive prince. He responds, saying "Welcome, brother! What can I do to assist you?" [from here you gain a moderate amount of scrap, and can choose to have a repair, take some more scrap, fuel and drone parts, take a drone augment, or take a random weapon. You may also pay 25 scrap for a random augment or system]

5III: Your Worm crew member recieves a response from an injured worm "Quick, leave, danger is here!". Suddenly, the seemingly-destroyed ship battery fires on you, and you hear a tearing sound coming from the hull (single boarding drone and ship damage, damage continues until drone is defeated. If you have a lvl 2 medbay, clonebay, or the Engi-Medi-Bot augment, you can save the surviving worm, who will join your crew)

5IV: You recieve a neutral response. This worm colony appears to be one of traders. One of the merchants says "Sorry brother, no free passes for those not in the hive. Maybe you'd be interested in some of our wares, though?" [shop menu opens up]